Blooming Marvellous

I've mentioned a number of times in my ramblings about my wife and my garden and how much we love it and enjoy growing our own food. I've been keeping a bit of a photographic diary this year of our progress. I won't bore you all with endless pictures of the same garden as it was growing. Instead, the following are the latest progress shots of the garden beds (we have three) in our rented back yard. I've also included a few shots of some local fauna enjoying spring flowers.

This is the main bed and shows the beans on the immediate left, cat mint and marigolds in the foreground, the lavender being invaded by our squash and cucumber plants in the middle ground and at the back, the rosemary bush.

Here is a shot of the squash plant taken over the top of the rosemary bush. These plants are doing particularly well and we have already had a couple of meals from them. Yum, squash!

The next shot is the same bed, with the bean trellis at the back, tomato bushes on the left and basil and spinach in the foreground.

This next shot is of our second bed and in this one, you can see some more squash (spaghetti squash this time) and some more beans growing up the fence, as well as some marigolds to keep the bugs at bay and our compost bin on the right. Just out of sight are snow peas, watermelon and some more squash as well. Yes, we like sqash.

This next shot is of the newest bed. In this one, we have corn, eggplants and a variety of chinese greens and cabbages, as well as some more marigolds. For those of you interested, the marigolds have proved to be far more effective at keeping the harmful bugs away from our plants than we ever imagined. And they also brighten up the garden too.

The next few shots are of some native birds feeding in a Bottlebrush tree. These birds weren't scared of me coming right up to them and taking their photo. I've also included a shot of the Bottlebrush blooms. It is a pretty flower, don't you think?

Finally, here is a shot of our cat enjoying a leaf off the catnip plant. You can tell she hates it, right.

Whatever you do, do not plant Zuchinni! It will take over the garden! Your friends and relatives will run at the sight of you! Fearing you want to give them some more "vegetables"! I think they actually banned it in Ohio.

Wow, nice. Especially since everything around here is brown and grey at this time of year.

Thanks mate. It is absoluely lovely at the moment. I really do like this time of the year. Our kitchen looks out on the backyard and I very much enjoy sitting at the kitchen table watching the bird life come and go.

Looks like those lorikeets are fans as well.

We're fortunate to have them come and hang out in the yard. They are so much fun to watch. We've also recently seen Silver Eyes and Fairy Wrens out there too. What beautiful birds they are.

Your cat looks like one that I used to have.

She is the real ruler of our roost. Everything we do is designed around consideration of her. But I wouldn't have it any other way. She is a great friend to both of us.

Doc,

Cats do go crazy over that stuff

Don't they what! The big ginger boy next door loves it as well but unlike Pumpkin (our cat), who wants to roll all over it, he sits there and yowls with delight. It is quite funny to hear.

Whatever you do, do not plant Zuchinni! It will take over the garden! Your friends and relatives will run at the sight of you! Fearing you want to give them some more "vegetables"! I think they actually banned it in Ohio

We are planning on planting them but more as an Autumn crop. My concern at the moment is that the squash are going to take over everything else and we'll be 'squashed' out of home We've probably planted too many but I would rather have lots of fruit than none at all.

Thanks very much. Those squash taste so good, particularly when stuffed with beef and herbs. Yum!

The bird is beautiful.

As I said, we're very fortunate to have them visit our back yard. I've mentioned it a number of times before; the bird life is amazing.

If that's what you do with a rented yard, wait to you get your own place! Delicious

We can hardly wait. We're already thinking about how we'd like it to look and what we'd like to grow. Nothing like planning ahead, right?

Chris,

Awesome garden, mate. Rose and I have been wanting to start a garden.

We are often surprised by the reaction a lot of folk have when we say we grow a lot of our vegetables. A lot of people have the idea it is hard work and takes a lot of maintenance. But we're not trying to grow market quantities so we don't spend a great deal of time with maintenance.

Planning right, putting down plenty of mulch to stop weeds growing and doing bits and pieces doesn't take up much time at all. It is a combination of trying things out, learning from mistakes and using your common sense. And there is nothing like eating food you've grown yourself.

I love those bird pics. The colors rock.

Thanks mate. The birds look even better in real life. You and Rose are going to have to come experience it for yourself. Just let me know when

What a beautiful backyard! Mine's all dead and gray right now (and needs mowing too but I'm lazy) and the only "exotic" bird is a neighbors chicken that comes over and scratches around under some pomegranite bushes.

We're going to have lots of cucumber and tomatos, or so it seems. We ate our first tomatos over the weekend and they are tasty!

Roy,

Thanks mate. Our garden doesn't really go dead and gray, not even in winter. But then our winters are pretty mild in comparison to yours. There are a few trees that loose their leaves but only a few. I guess we're lucky in that the garden is nice pretty much all year round.

Tova,

Better late than never. The yard is fenced on both sides but not across the back. It is really big and has lots and lots of room. Toni and I are talking about expanding even further. We want to prepare another bed for winter vegetables and start our potato heap as well.

On the opposite side from our garden is a very old shed that the owners are going to remove in the near future. This space was once used for keeping chickens and we'd love to prep the soil there because it would be rich from all the chicken poop. Perfect for growing veggies. We'd love to keep chickens but we really don't have the time at the moment. However it will be something we do in the future.

Whip,

Thanks very much for the recipe. It sounds absolutely divine. We've been stuffing our normal squash with beef mince and fresh herbs then sticking them into the oven for a while. They taste so good. I am looking forward to trying out the spaghetti squash when the fruit is ready.

We got a lot of bird life in our back yard, surprising given how many cats live in the area. I've not yet seen any of the birdlife threatened and would have words if they were. I think if we started feeding them, we'd have so many birds in our yard, the cats would feel overwhelmed. Good to see you, by the way.

the only time you can get real tomato taste is from a road side stand, or your own back yard!

Exactly! While the supermarket ones might look good, they don't taste like proper tomatos. I've seen a photo of enhanced tomatos, made tough for travel. The had a number of them sitting on a brick with another brick on top and they didn't lose shape.